Telegraph-key.



A. H. ADAMS. TELEGRAPH KEY. APPLIGATION FILED 1113.16, 1912.

Patented June 16, 1914.

f tion of the device;

Staieof New York,

prevent more' 'than UNiTED s'rA'rns ien-TENT OFFICE.

OF SPARKILL, NEW YORK, l5-SIGNOR T WESTERN ELECTRIC YORK, N. Y., .A COMORATION 0F ILLINOIS.

oolrm, or New :ruminanti-KEY.

Specication of Letters Yatext.

To all willem; it may concern Be it known that' v1,",AxirHUii H. rioAMs, citizen of' the United States', residing at Sparkill, iii the ycounty of Rockland and have invent-ed a certain Telegraphnew" and useful' Improvement in full, clear,

Keys, of which the following is a concise, and exact description.

i invention relates to printing telehs and devices of like which'a plurality of lever keys are-used for makingn an electrical contact. Q More particularly, its object is 'to provide a means whereby t 'e Contact is 'made at the endv of the downward of its upward return stro e.' ner the duration of the contact iscontrolled by the time required by the key'in returning to its normal key is'- free' to returnv te its upwardpositi'on immediately upon its reaching the end of its downward stroke.

Another object of this invention is to combine with the above feature a means to one key being depressed at a time, making it necessary Vfor the elec` trical contact made before another contact can be made.

In the drawings-f-Figure 1 is a side elevawith the key' detail the for tact mechanism is shown down; Figs. 4 and 5 show in ward ends of the Contact springs in their' open and clogged circuit positions .respectively.

Through a: slot in the forward portion of the frame 140 passes the forward extension 18 of the lever 10, carrying the finger key 12. The upper and lower edges 41 and 42 of this slot. limitthe movement of the keys.

' On the upper portion of the lever is formed an upwardly1 and backwardly curved eX- tension 11, while the lower portion extends backward being pivoted at the point 13 to a I bar 14 which runs perpendicular to the plane of the lever. 11 and the lower portion of the section 37 is an L-shaped frame 15, the horizontal portion of which supports the contact-making device and the vertical portion supports the mechanism for the preventing of more than character in p stroke of the key and, `is not broken until the k' reaches the-end In this man#V position, assuming y that the by one key to be brokenr Fig. 2 is a front elevationV of the contact mechanism with the key in its normal pesition,while1n Fig. 3 the con- Between the extensionrv Application medlebruary lo, 1912. Seriali No. 678,02.

one key being depressed at a time. A hook 21 is formed on the lever to which is fastened one end of :i backwardly extending wire 22. F astened to the other end of this wire is one end of a retracting spring 23, the other end of said spring beingsecured to a portion 24 of the `frame 40.

The Contact mechanismconsists of' two. `parallel anvil springs 25 and 26 supported y an insulating block 27 attached to the frame 7,15. l springs 'are provided with projections 33 and Between th'ese two projections 33 fand 34 and through holes in the members 15 'and 20passes a vertical rod 18. A sleeve 'nsulating" material is secured to and covers a portion of the {such a length and so placed that when the :lower end of the sleeve 19, which forms a -shoulder, rests upon the/member 20 (Fig. 32,- the upper end/ofsaid sleeve will be 'slightly below the pro'ectio'ns 33 and 34 of the contact springs.

rod 18, and is of nthis lower position of the rod 18, as shown in Figs.` 3 and 5,

'the' contacts 2.9 and 30, mounted on said .sp1-ings, come in contact with the points 35 ori the post 28, closing the circuit between 'the .two sprin s. The post 28 is secured to 'but insulated rom the frame 15, and it is so located that its upper portion carrying the Acontact points 35 is between the two contact yblocks 29 and 30 carried by the springs 25 and 26.* .When the rod 18 moves to its upper position, as shown by Figs. 2 and 4, the sleeve 19 comes between the two projections 33 and 311, forces the two springs 25 and 26 apart, and breaks the contacts of thel two springs with the post 28, thereby opening the circuit. l

The rod 18 is pushed downward by the extension 11 and then it is raised by the upper face of the lever coming in contact with its lower end. It `will be noticed that the distance between the lower face of the extension 11 and the upper face of the lever is greater than the length of the rod 18, so that when the keyis operated it travels iiear1y its full downward stroke before the extension 11 comes in Contact with the rod 18 with the. result that the sleeve 19 does not clear the projections 33 and 34 until the key has reached its lowest'J position. In other words, the contact of the two springs with the post 28, and consequently the clos- The endsj32 and 36 of thesev 'no other key can 'be ing of the circuit, does not occur until the finish of the downward stroke. In like manner the lower end of the rod 18 is not engaged by the portion 37 of the lever 1l) until said. lever has nearly reached the end of its upward stroke, so that the Contact springs 25 and 26 are not spread apart and the circuit opened until the key 12 has reached its normal position; the circuitremaining closed during the return stroke of the key. Hence, the length of time that the circuit is closed is determined by the time taken by the key in its upward movement, which time is dependent upon the tension of the spring 23.

As previously stated, the lower portion of the frame l5 supports the mechanism for preventing more than one key being depressed at a time. This is accomplished in the following manner; the member 20 is bent nearly at a right angle so that its lower edge is parallel to the lower edge of the frame 15. through the Slots inthe sides of which pass the keys. Between the lower edges of said trough pass a series of parallel rods 16, said rods being spaced below and between the levers so that the lower portion of the lever passes between two of these bars as shown in Fig. 3. Over the upper surface of these parallel bars 16 is placed a ribbon 17, suliiciently loose to permit a key to pass down between two parallel bars. When the key is'in its downward position the ribbon is drawn down into the space between two of the parallel bars and around the lower edge of the lever. When in this position, (Fig. 3) the entire ribbon 17 is taut so that operated until the one now down has been restored to its normal position, since the lower edge of any other key lever will be prevented from passing This forms an inverted trough i l between two of the parallel bars 16 by said tautness of the ribbon 17.

What I claim is: l. In a device of the character described, E the combination with a plurality of pivot.- ally mounted key levers, a plurality of conl tact-making elements arranged in airs, l each pair 'being individual to a key lever, for each pair of contacts the key levers, means carried a plunger element operated by by said plunger elements for preventing contact of the contact plates except at the f end o f the stroke of the key levers, in combination with means comprising a plurality l cf parallel rods, and a flexible member on i' said rods and in operative relation to said l l key leversl whereby but one key lever can be fully de ressed-at any one time.

2. In a evice of the character described, a plate having a plurality of slotted depending members, a bar mounted parallel i to the depending members, a plurality of key l levers pivotally mounted on said bar and movable in the slotted dependingjnembers, an insulated mounting block mounted on said plate and carrying a plurality of con- I tact. plates mounted in palrs, one pair for each key lever, a plunger located between i each pair of contact plates and normally separating the same, means carried by the key levers for moving said plungers, whereby said contact plates move into engagement with each other in combination with means for preventing the depression of more than one key at a time.

In witness whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 13th day of February A. D 1912. i

l ARTHUR H. ADAMS.

Vi tne'sses W. F. HOFFMAN, InviNc MACDONALD. 

